User blog:Raidra/Annoying people on Pokemon Showdown
I had a couple irritating Pokemon Showdown experiences the other night and thought I’d share them here. Be warned that they’re long (There's a "too long; didn't read" at the bottom). A couple evenings ago I was trying out a new theme team. Things went well, with me winning some and losing some, until what turned out to be my second-to-last match. I ended up knocking out a couple of this guy’s Pokemon and suddenly he began typing gibberish, such as strings of single letters. I thought he was freaking out, so I was patient and reassuring. He finally told me, “you got forfeit.” Not understanding what he meant, I asked, “Who do you want to forfeit- you or me?” I had to leave soon anyway, so I would have forfeited since it wasn’t a big deal (I play for fun; never mind the ladder). However, instead of answering the question, he responded, “nooo,” and, “w-t-f.” Minutes passed without him making a move or doing anything other than spouting gibberish, so I told him, “I’ve been patient, but I’m going to turn the timer on if you don’t make a move.” That finally prompted him into action, but shortly afterward he began typing nonsense and refusing to move again. I asked, “Are you going to move?” and he replied, “if you forfeit, then this stop sic.” Yeah. His plan was to annoy me into forfeiting and giving him a free win. I turned on the timer and noted, “I offered to forfeit and you didn’t respond. I turned the timer on.” When he saw his plan wasn’t working, he played so he wouldn’t lose due to inactivity. He lost, told me, “bye girl,” and left. I began a new match and he began hassling me, demanding a rematch and explaining, “revenge.” I finished my match, told him, “No,” and left the site. Hopefully that guy will learn soon that A) basing your Pokemon strategy on gross episodes of My Gym Partner’s a Monkey isn’t the best decision and B) purposely being annoying and rude won’t make people give you anything you want on a silver platter. There may be a few people who will forfeit just because they can’t be bothered, but most people will battle out of spite like me (and many of them won’t be nearly as polite). Later that night I tried some more new teams. As earlier, things went well, with me winning some and losing some. Things went well until, again, the second-to last game (I had planned on it being my last for the night, but what ended up happening left such a bad taste in my mouth that I played one more match as a palate cleanser). The team I was using was my “Yeah, We Smell Good” team with Mighty Lika the Roselia, Jessebelle the Vileplume, Cologne the Spritzee, Bacon the Grumpig, Aged Leather the Makuhita, and Tomato the Darmanitan. The opponent had a team with mainly Legendaries, Mythicals, and other strong Pokemon (Mega Mewtwo-Y, Mew, Garchomp, and I forget what else). They may have thought simply having strong Pokemon would be enough for them to win handily because they didn’t play well. For instance, at one point their Mew was facing my Vileplume. A Psychic move would have been super-effective, but instead they used Aqua Tail, which was not very effective (I ended up knocking out Mew with repeated Petal Blizzards). We all make mistakes (I know I still do), and I don’t heckle players for making rookie mistakes. However, what happened next made me lose any goodwill toward this person. I had knocked out all their Pokemon except Garchomp. They told me, “Stop it I only have one Pokemon back.” I assume they meant they wanted me to stop because they only had one Pokemon left. If you don’t come onto Showdown with the understanding that you may see all your Pokemon knocked out one by one before your eyes (either during a lengthy battle or in rapid succession), you shouldn’t come onto Showdown at all. Still, it was late and I was about ready to quit for the night, so I asked, “Do you want me to forfeit?” They didn’t respond or make any moves. I was sitting there wondering if I were going to have to wait and wait like I had earlier that night, and then I noticed that they had turned on the timer. This lowdown spawn of a Nuzleaf and a Mawile had tried to trick me into losing due to inactivity. I immediately lost my goodwill and attacked their Garchomp. When they saw their scheme wasn’t working, they began battling again. Their Garchomp was actually pretty good, knocking out two or three of my Pokemon, but in the end I won. They left, but to their credit they didn’t make any parting remarks or try to hassle me into a rematch. The kicker, as I’m sure you’ve realized, is that if they had answered, “Do you want me to forfeit?” with, “Yes, please, I’d appreciate it,” I would have forfeited and given them a free win. Instead they chose to be deceptive and ended up losing and looking terrible. TL;DR- One player tried to annoy me into handing them a free win and another tried to trick me into losing due to inactivity; both had their rears handed to them by my Pokemon. Update: My matches since then have been good. I've won some, lost some, and met some very cool people. It's only a few that are jerks like from the other night. Category:Blog posts